Bulldogs Still Fourth in Maryland

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
For the second day in a row, Alex Righi led the charge for the Yale men's swimming and diving team at the Terrapin Cup Invitational, hosted by the University of Maryland. Righi once again flirted with breaking his own record, this time in the 100 yard backstroke. His winning time of 47.75 was three hundredths of a second shy of his Yale record, set at last year's EISL Championships.

The 20 points Righi earned with his first-place finish helped the Bulldogs stay in 4th place overall in a strong group of schools which includes West Viriginia, who held onto first place overall, and the Huskies of UConn, who sit above the Bulldogs in 3rd after the second day of competition.

The key to Yale's success on day two at the Terrapin Cup was the foundations they layed in Friday morning's preliminary heats. Of the seven events held today, Yale was represented in six championship finals.

In the 200 yard medley relay final, the Yale team of Righi, Colin Stalnecker, Chris Pool and captain Geof Zann finished a strong second in a time of 1:31.96, ahead of NC State's team. The results secured double points for Yale, giving them 34 of their 368 total points.

The 200 medley relay was the first of two events in which Zann and Righi helped Yale's point total moving along. Zann also finished fifth in the 100 yard backstroke, which Righi won.

Andrew Foss continued his impressive start to the 2006-07 season in the freestyle events with a third-place finish in Friday's 200 yard free. Foss only qualified for the championship final of the event by 0.02 seconds, but he shaved over 1.5 seconds off his heat time in this evening's final. Yale's other finalists were Chris Pool, who finished 5th in the 100 yard butterfly, and Dennen McCloskey, who finished 8th in the 400 yard individual medley. Yale's 800 yard freestyle relay team of Zann, McCloskey, Reid Madden and Foss was edged into 5th place by NC State's 'B' quartet.

The Bulldogs will begin the third and final day of competition at the Terrapin Cup tomorrow with preliminary heats at 10 am. Live results can be found at the Maryland Athletics webiste.